Tutorial Cartography for Map Figures in Academic Journals & Books

Fonts

For readability, I suggest 8 pt or larger font.

How many fonts? I use one, maybe 2 in a journal figure map. Bold, slant, itallic, and light variants of one font are more than enough options if I need them at all. Simplicity is key.

Which font? It depends. Pick a font that is readable at small sizes. Typically, I find sans serif fonts (think Calibri) to work better than serif fonts (think Times New Roman) in small maps, but that's not a rule. Calibri is a good standard choice available on most computers. My current favorite is an open font called Glacial Indiference which has a bit of a mid-century modern vibe, but just because I like it doesn't mean it's always a good choice. Remember to ask yourself: Does this communicate the message well?

Some font tricks that can help: adjust the line spacing and kerning (the distance between the letters) to tighten up labels and make them take up less room or space them out to fill a larger space. Don't go crazy, but adjusting the spacing is sometimes helpful.

Be careful when downloading fonts. Be sure you're using a reputable source. Also, some fonts may not have all the characters you need, so be sure to check that they include the punctuation and international characters that your map requires.

Visual Hierarchy

Visual Hierarchy refers to the order in which we notice elements on a page. Certain characteristics get noticed first. We can use these charactersitics to our advantage to make sure the reader sees what we want them to see.

Contrast

Even when you're restricted to a gray-scale color palette, you can make use of visual hierarchy. Elements that have high contrast with respect to the other elements around them are noticed first. For example, darker elements stand out in comparison to light backgrounds and lighter elements stand out on a dark background.

Vary the amount of black in your grays (10% black is pretty light vs. 90% black is almost black). Save black for the most important items in your map - the things you need the reader to notice.

Size

Larger things get noticed before smaller things and size can also convey imporatance. Vary your line width or the size of your points to draw attention to more important elements.

Here is an example of a map that makes use of visual hierarchy. The roads are there, but muted to let the arrondisement boundaries and the point locations stand out.

Reference map published in Smoodin, E. 2020. Paris in the Dark: Going to the Movies in the City of Light, 1930–1950. Duke University Press.

If you use color, save bright, saturated colors for the elements that need to stand out. In the example below, I used grays and a muted blue for background information and for the important information (the railroad line variants) I used bold, saturated colors (that also print well in grayscale). This image was made for a journal article with several similar maps, but this particular one was not needed because we decided we didn't need to discuss this particular area of the study in the paper.

Background Data

Remember Step 1 where we discussed our story? I bet "Google Maps" or "All of OSM" wasn't a part of that story. My personal preference is to not use "base maps" or pre-assembled data tiles unless I absolutely have to. Vector data is better for clear line work and often "base maps" contain too much information. They can also be difficult to cite properly when the data has been re-processed by a commercial company.

I almost NEVER use an airphoto. I love airphotos. They are fun to look at because they have a lot of information in them, but that's the problem. We need simplicity and airphotos are not simple. Polygons in our map often cover up the airphoto, so that kind of defeats the purpose.

Figure Caption

One special thing about figures in journal articles is that they get captions! Captions are text that explains why you put this image in the article and what the reader needs to know about it. Caption text can sometimes take the place of a map legend. For example: Figure 1: Study site locations. Black squares indicate sites treated with experimental weed killer and open circles indicate control sites.

Depending on the journal, the figure caption should contain the citation in the journal's preferred style for the data you used and the cartographer's name.

Be prepared to cite the data you used and the cartographer's name in the figure caption, as well as give any contextual information that the reader will need to know to interpret the map. (Myles, C., M.M. Tobias, & I. McKinnon. 2021. “‘A big fish in a small pond’: How Arizona wine country was made” in Agritourism, Wine Tourism, Craft Beer Tourism: Local Responses to peripherality through tourism niches. M. Giulia Pezzi, A. Faggian, N. Reid, eds. Routledge.)

Map Elements

You may have learned in your introductory GIS class that all maps need a title, legend, scale bar, and north arrow. That was a lie. Well... let me explain. We talked earlier about identifying your story and tailoring your map to communicate well. Some map figures will need some of these things. Others will not.

Title: You'll almost never need a title (that's what the figure caption is for).

Legend: If your style choices are obvious, you don't need a legend. For example, study site locations marked with bold black dots, clearly labeled, probably don't need a legend. Legends should show the elements a reader woudn't figure out on their own.

Scale Bar & North Arrow: If your map shows the entirety of a recognizable geographic element, such as a continent, you probably don't need a scale bar and if you haven't rotated the map, you don't need a north arrow.

When you need to add map elements to the layout, please keep it simple and subtle. Your reader will find the north arrow if they need it. It doesn't need to scream at them.

Only add the elements that help your reader understand the map. Eliminate everything extra. When it doubt, explain it in the figure caption.

A map figure with selected elements - notably it does not need a scale bar and north arrow - published in Myles, C., M.M. Tobias, & I. McKinnon. 2021. “‘A big fish in a small pond’: How Arizona wine country was made” in Agritourism, Wine Tourism, Craft Beer Tourism: Local Responses to peripherality through tourism niches. M. Giulia Pezzi, A. Faggian, N. Reid, eds. Routledge.